Jacob Waite

Metropolitan Interactive Provides Video Production System for Polar Park

Metropolitan interactive, doing business as Metinteractive, knows how to play ball.  The company, which provides strategic solutions at the interaction of architecture, communications and technology, provided a complete video production system for the control room at Polar Park, the new home of the Worcester (Massachusetts) Red Sox, a Triple-A baseball club and affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.  The new stadium opened for the 2021 season and seats more than 9,500 spectators.

“Polar Park represents a transition of the former Pawtucket Red Sox to Worcester as well as a new commitment to economic development in the downtown district.  These folks are seriously committed to bringing an MLB-level show to the WooSox patrons”, stated Jeff Mele CEO.

Polar Park’s control room is the venue’s media hub broadcasting games for the New England Sports Network, streaming practice sessions and driving the scoreboard’s live show.  Metinteractive collaborated with ANC on the project, one of many sports-related jobs the two companies have partnered on.

The control room install posed a number of challenges: It had a tight budget and took place during the height of the coronavirus pandemic and while stadium construction was still underway.  Nevertheless, Metinteractive was able to upgrade a lot of the specified equipment to a higher professional level, provide plexiglass shields and dividers to keep the control room safe for its staff, train employees on the use of the new systems and even furnish temporary fiber to the outfield for camera connectivity.

“We had people in the control room wearing construction helmets and running programs,” recalls Keith Book, Metinteractive’s Director of Design who served as Design Engineer and Commissioner for the Polar Park project.  “There was no break between finishing construction and starting the baseball season, so the venue was very much an active construction site while we worked there.”

Comprising the video production system are Hitachi ENG cameras with ElationLogic telemetry, Clear-Com Partyline and wireless intercomm systems, Ross Carbonite switching and Evertz replay.  Metinteractive suggested a Ross Ultrix router, which can manipulate natively all of the audio pathways for the feeds.  The control room also features a Yamaha MADI-to-Dante interface and a powerful Allen & Heath SQ-5 digital mixer, which integrates with the router without requiring analog wiring.  ElationLogic software also handles all of the room’s work surfaces, including consoles and desktop equipment turrets.

“Our team really stepped up to make the Polar Park control room a truly professional, ergonomic and safe work environment,” says Book.  “We even changed the layout of the space adjusting operator positions to provide for a more logical workflow.”

Jesse LaBranche was Metinteractive’s Senior Technician and Project Manager at Polar Park with Jesse Alford also serving as a Senior Technician.

Metinteractive has been sent up to the big leagues this season working on a project for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

by Jacob Waite

Pharos Controls Lighting for Steaua Bucharest Stadium

The Steaua Stadium is a new, multi-purpose stadium located in the Ghencea neighbourhood of Bucharest, Romania. With a 31,000 spectator capacity, it’s the home of CSA Steaua Bucuresti.

A replacement for the outdated stadium, the new venue was used by the North Macedonia team during preparations for UEFA Euro 2020, before being officially inaugurated in the summer of 2021 with a football match between Steaua and OFK Beograd.

Dynamic lighting is crucial to any stadium’s functionality and user experience. The contractor for the Steaua Stadium chose an LED lighting system from globally renowned manufacturer Philips Signify featuring 252 Arena Vision LED DMX and 152 Uni Flood RGBNW fixtures. The lighting control system comprises an LPC 1 (Lighting Playback Controller 1) and a TPC (Touch Panel Controller) from Pharos Architectural Controls. The LPC 1 offers 512 channels of DMX/eDMX, while the TPC offers 512 channels of eDMX for a total of two DMX universes of control, as required for the project. Featuring individually controllable and independently running timelines and scenes, the control system offers the ability to build dynamic, precise and fully bespoke pre-programmed lighting effects using the Pharos Designer 2 software. The system also provides the added benefit of real-time manual overrides.

The TPC is a sophisticated touchscreen lighting controller offering vast design potential with a fully integrated user interface and a single power-over-ethernet (PoE) network connection. As well as being a stand-alone controller in its own right, the TPC has a 4.3” fully customisable touch panel and can integrate with the broader range of Pharos Designer controllers and remote devices.

Commenting on the project, Mark de Gruyter, Regional Manager - EMEA at Pharos Architectural Controls said: “As a replacement to the outdated Steaua Stadium, the new stadium is an incredibly impressive venue. The attention to detail is evident, and the state-of-the-art lighting system ensures the stadium can be used all year round for a wide variety of sporting fixtures and other events.

“The control element from Pharos has allowed the venue to integrate dynamic and programmed lighting into its activity, offering a wealth of options when it comes to enhancing the experience for visitors.”

Power Electric SRL was the solutions provider for the project’s lighting requirements. Ciprian Viscopoleanu from Power Electric added: “As a Romanian company, we are always proud to work on nationally-acclaimed projects. The Steaua Stadium is an incredibly important venue in Bucharest, attracting thousands of national and international visitors. Our team’s expertise made it possible to integrate the architectural lighting design in such a manner that a variety of dynamic scenarios are possible, from projecting different colouring according to the playing team, to synchronizing lights and music with specific timing.

“Of course, working with global-leaders from across the lighting industry, such as Pharos and Signify, definitely made a difference and we are confident that the technology used in the Steaua Stadium project will deliver unrivalled results for a venue with such a significant role in Romanian culture.”

Steaua Stadium is now the largest sports complex in Romania, spread over 82,000 square metres. It will also house the CSA Steaua military museum and a hotel with 24 rooms. The media zone will meet all UEFA and FIFA requirements, making the stadium an attractive venue for national and international sporting events.

by Jacob Waite

Campbellsville University Press Box Expands Capabilities With Allen & Heath dLive Audio Control

Kentucky based AVL consulting and installation experts JCA Media continue to push the audio, video and lighting technology envelope with their latest upgrade project for the Finley Stadium / Citizens Bank Field press box and connected facilities at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky. At the heart of the more than nine miles of combined AV cabling across the venue, JCA Media selected an Allen & Heath dLive CDM32 MixRack, a compact dLive C1500 surface and a plethora of remote control options to provide the audio mixing heavy lifting.

“While it is a large building, it is primarily a football system with a few open mics needed for the main PA,” notes JCA Media Project Manager Alex Peake. “The PA mix comes from an Allen & Heath IP8 Remote Control, an 11-1/2” wide motorized 8-fader remote that works with the dLive system. The main PA operator just wanted quick level control for the stadium announcer mic, ref’s mic, and music—a sidecar sort of functionality which the IP8 handles with ease. A dLive C1500 Control Surface lives in the broadcast room where the crew can quickly tweak EQs and compression for the broadcast mix to be a little more hands-on there. It’s really cool just how flexible dLive is when it comes to both control and I/O options, especially since there are two broadcast rooms, a classroom on the second floor, and the President’s Suite on the third floor that all have I/O requirements as well. We used DX168 remote I/O units in each location that flow in and out of the CDM32 to give me the needed connectivity in those rooms. Audio control in each of the spaces is handled by wall mounted IP1s or the more tactile IP8s.”

“These IP1 and IP8 units are so powerful,” Peake adds. “They are a quick way to give control of a dLive or Avantis or even an AHM. We connected them via a standard TCP/IP network connection and easily interface with other controllers and computers—all on a standard ethernet infrastructure. Campbellsville has an IP8 in front of the Play-by-play operators. Layer A is the monitor mix for Play-by-play 1 while Layer B lets Play-by-play 2 adjust their monitor mix. This is a pretty cool application with two of the six IP8 fader layers used as a monitor mixer for multiple folks.”

“When they play stingers or commercials that show up on the huge stadium display and PA, they didn’t just want that audio mix to be managed in the Tricaster,” noted Peake. “They instead wanted to bring it out to fine-tune via the dLive along with their play-by-play mics and ref mics that then would route back to the Tricaster. Dante allows us to pull from the Tricaster media pool and send to the dLive to combine and mix as needed and roundtrip it back to the Tricaster program feed. This routing used to be much more technically complicated in the previous system design, but now Dante and dLive combine to add the power and flexibility and simplicity they need.”

dLive Director is also in use across any zone in the venue which requires audio control. From exterior tailgating zones and over to the press box and various interior zones, access points for dLive Director offer audio control where and when it is needed. A multi-platform editor and control software for dLive, dLive Director allows for system configuration offline before the game starts and full control of the mix live using a Mac or PC laptop or touch tablet. “If someone doesn’t have quick access to the dLive C1500 in the broadcast room,” Peake notes, “they can pull it up right where they are on their Mac and run what they need to. Pretty much wherever we have a screen, we’ve got access to Director—and therefore access to the dLive.”

Named after Campbellsville University’s longest serving football coach, Ron Finley, the Finley Stadium / Citizens Bank Field press box contains a wide array of state of the art AVL gear. With over 20 Danley cabinets, Shure QLX-D microphones, a Blackmagic 288x288 Videohub, nearly 50 Green-GO comm drops, Panasonic PTZ cameras, Lyntec power control, Winsted production room command consoles, and lighting from Chauvet and The Light Source, Finley Stadium is equipped to excel in live, streamed and distributed audio and video well into the future.

by Jacob Waite

Legends International and Team Selected for Avicii Arena

Stockholm Globe Arena Fastigheter AB (SGAF) have announced a best-in-class team, led by the premium experiences company Legends International, has been appointed to support them in reimagining the performance space of Avicii Arena, Stockholm, Sweden, in accordance with preliminary decisions made by Stockholm City Council.

Legends International has been appointed to deliver project management services, and to lead a team of experts in supporting SGAF, creating a concept design and contributing to the business case, with the focus on enhancing the fan and guest experience and additional revenue generation.

“It has been a long and rewarding process, and we feel confident that we, together with our tenant Stockholm Live among others, have procured a very competent team in Legends International. We are looking forward to working up proposals for the Stockholm City Council and begin the development of Avicii Arena,” says Mats Viker, CEO, SGAF.

“Avicii Arena is an iconic venue, which our team are privileged to be helping SGAF reimagine,” Martin Jennings, Managing Director UK & Head of Global Planning for Legends International, said. “We believe we have brought together a great combination of international design and project expertise, combined with local knowhow, to help SGAF make Avicii Arena a landmark venue for live entertainment and top-tier Ice Hockey for years to come”

“Avicii Arena is such a significant and wonderful landmark in Stockholm and has a long and storied history as a premier destination for concerts, entertainment and hockey," said John Rhodes, director of Sports + Entertainment at HOK. "We are honoured to have the opportunity to collaborate with Legends International and SGAF to infuse the arena with new offerings and energy that will elevate the spectator, athlete and performer experience."

• Legends International (project managers): is a premium experiences company that specialises in delivering holistic solutions for legendary brands.  Our Global, multi-disciplinary service solutions collaborate on every project to ensure success across each of our verticals. Headquartered in London, together with our US colleagues, our experts have delivered over 1,800 innovative solutions across our six verticals. From creating a robust financial model for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, developing retail strategies for the Rio 2016 Olympics, providing award-winning catering at Manchester City, and 360-degree services for The View From The Shard – Legends International deliver it all.
• HOK (architects): HOK’s Sports + Entertainment practice specialises in the design of arenas, stadiums, ballparks, training facilities and entertainment centres. The group plans and designs world-class sports complexes that are centrepieces of successful, vibrant entertainment districts and communities. Current and recent arena projects include FC Barcelona’s New Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona, Spain; Casal España Arena in Valencia, Spain; Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi; the Footprint Center modernization in Phoenix, Arizona; the renovation of State Farm Arena in Atlanta; and Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
• schlaich bergermann partner (structures): is an internationally renowned structural engineering and consulting firm based in Stuttgart, Germany with expertise in large-scale, long-span, high-rise, sports and entertainment projects which are architecturally and aesthetically pleasing, but also innovative, efficient and lightweight. With a multidisciplinary team of more than 200 members designing and delivering holistic and sustainable solutions, projects of note include many stadium projects for the FIFA World Cups in Korea and Japan, Germany, South Africa, Brazil, and the first fully demountable container stadium for the 2022 World Cup, several club stadiums throughout the world, and various multipurpose arena projects in Europe. The rehabilitation of BC Place Stadium (Canada) or Stadium Maracanã (Brazil), and more recent projects such as Wanda Metropolitano Stadium (Spain), or Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (Great Britain), are just a few of these highlights.
• Ramboll (engineering): Across the world, Ramboll’s 16,000 experts combine local experience with a global knowledge base to create sustainable cities and societies. In this project, Ramboll are leading building services engineers, including, for example, MEP, fire safety, sustainability, and 3D scanning expertise. Ramboll Sweden and Ramboll UK collaborate on this project, delivering enduring and resource-efficient solutions. Previous experience for the Ramboll team include work on the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Tampere Arena, Finland.
• Efterklang (acoustics): Based in Europe with a team of over 130 engineers with architectural, musical and physics backgrounds, Efterklang is appointed to design the acoustics for the arena.  With a long running track record designing sports arenas and live performance venues, they work to optimise the sonic experience of live events by careful design of architectural form, materials and sound systems.  Their recent work includes the new Bratislava Congress Center and they have provided acoustic designs for several sports arenas in the Nordics including the Swedish Hockey Stadiums in Skellefteå, Karlstad, and Umeå. 
• Light Bureau (lighting): Having recently completed award-winning lighting projects such as The Twist at Kistefos Museum in Norway, Maggie’s Cancer Care Center in Leeds, and the restoration of the Sammy Ofer Centre in London, Light Bureau has been appointed as the lighting designer at Avicii Arena.  Light Bureau is a design studio based in London & Oslo and has a portfolio of projects worldwide that showcase elegance and innovation in lighting.
• AFRY (cost management): AFRY are a European leader in engineering, design, and advisory services, with a global reach.  Since 2017, AFRY has provided cost calculation for the Globe Arena and has a history with the project throughout its lifetime.  AFRY has consulted on many of the major stadiums in the Nordic countries including Tele2 Arena and Friends Arena in Stockholm.
• Movement Strategies (crowd dynamics): Movement Strategies, part of the GHD group of companies, is the world’s leading crowd dynamics consultancy, advising new-build and existing sports and entertainment venues, major events, transport and cultural venues globally. Long term clients include Liverpool Football Club (Anfield), The FA (Wembley Stadium), and AELTC (The Wimbledon Championships).

by Jacob Waite

CT & LDG Choose Elation Broadcast Lighting for Super Bowl Sportscast Booths

Creative Technology supplied Elation broadcast lights to Lighting Design Group for use on sportscast booths and stages in and outside of Sofi Stadium during Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles in February. Dennis Size, Executive Vice President of Design for Lighting Design Group (www.ldg.com), was responsible for the overall lighting design and turned to Elation Fuze Profile CW™ and KL Panel™ luminaires for key, fill and wash lighting.

Multiple stages scattered around LA provided pre- and post-game coverage while promoting the city and shows for client Comcast. This was the fourth Super Bowl in which LDG has been involved and was Size’s second time working a Super Bowl. Having used conventional fixtures at the Super Bowl in Minneapolis four years ago, he says their inflexibility led him to request more moving lights for this year’s plot. ““That’s what drove the design concept of a moving light rig. At the Minneapolis Super Bowl, we were forced to do a lot of last minute re-focusing — inefficiently wasting time and requiring additional crew. In L.A. I wanted to be able to make changes rapidly and avoid the studio L.D.’s having to always grab a ladder to make repairs and re-focus.”

Size turned to technology services provider Creative Technology (www.ctus.com), part of the NEP Group, for a solution. CT’s Christopher Hibbard had introduced the Fuze Profile CW to Size a couple of years before on a presidential event. “It is a very practical fixture and the price point is excellent,” says Hibbard of the LED framing fixture that CT’s Chris Wasilauskas and Ian Dobson had worked closely with Elation to develop. “But it also has value from a design standpoint. I have designed with them on trade shows and corporate shows and it fulfills 95% of what you need to do.” He underlines that they are ideal for broadcast projects where budgets are often very tight. “If a client is looking for an LED Leko, I tell them that for just a bit more they can have a moving head with all the flexibility that gives.”

Size adds that on jobs like the presidential event you often end up with a lot of moving lights, which makes for an expensive rig. “As a designer, I want to get the best possible design I can but also be as financially efficient as I can for our clients. Chris suggested I try the Fuze and it was quite successful. When you’ve used a light successfully, you’re more apt to turn to it again.”

And that’s what the designer did for the Super Bowl booths and stages. No longer concerned with whether or not the Fuze lights would work and be reliable, he was more concerned with a persistently bright Southern California sun. “The bright sun was our major concern so I needed some firepower,” he explains. “We used the Fuze on several stages but then raised the base illumination with softlights and chose the KL Panels, which I have found are very efficient and very bright.” “We thought we needed to raise the intensity level but were all pleasantly surprised that the Fuzes did such a great job.” Arc source luminaires were also employed on several stages.

Some 70 Fuze Profile CWs were used across all the stages for key and fill lights (Creative Technology stocks 200 of the fixtures) with 21 KL Panels used for wash and eye lights. Stages with Elation lights included the Main Stadium Stage, the Stadium Clicker Stage, the Telemundo Stadium Stage, Lakeside #1, Lakeside #2 and the Tailgate Stage. At night, one of the lake stages was also used for Olympic coverage.

Size appreciated the Fuze Profile’s more economical form factor, saying that top shelf moving lights often have a lot of options that he may never use but still have to pay for, or wasn’t able to procure them at all because of the cost. “The Fuze has the functionality of a Leko, but brighter — and able to pan and tilt — lighting the talent as the director moved them around. That’s exactly what I needed. The Fuze is a solid, bright light, with great color rendering, and a good shutter assembly, that moves well AND IS QUIET.”

Another important fixture used across many of the Super Bowl stages was softlight illumination. Chris comments that many of the more popular softlights in use today are too bulky and with more broadcasts happening in smaller spaces with limited ceiling heights, a more compact form factor is often required.

“The KL Panel has a really nice profile, short and contained that allows it to more easily fit in a tight space. Even with the barndoors on the form is quite small.” Nevertheless, it is the fixture’s easy-access encoders on the bottom of the fixture that he finds exceptionally useful. “We were asked to provide a couple of lights for the makeup room and the easiest thing was to grab a couple of KL Panels,” he recounts. “The ability to easily dial in intensity, CCI, etc. via the knobs on the back panel made it incredibly user friendly.” Size agrees, stating, “For someone who deals almost exclusively with broadcasting, that is almost a requirement for what we do. Often we’re using these instruments in places where you need to adjust it at the light and next to the camera. It’s an excellent feature.”

The KL Panel is a full-color-spectrum panel with stepless color temperature adjustment from 2,000K to 10,000K and high CRI and TLCI indexes. Additional color tuning is possible through a green shift adjustment and a virtual gel library. It houses an efficient RGBW + Lime + Cyan LED array and outputs 24,000 lumens for wonderful soft white or full-color washes.

Elation was delighted to contribute to a successful Super Bowl production in its home base market of LA and is grateful for the cooperation with CT and LDG. Size concludes, “Over the years, we’ve come to find that Elation has raised the bar on technology and quality of product and I’m happy to use the fixtures. Many designers who didn’t know the lights until the Super Bowl were pleasantly pleased and we were even surprised how great they performed.”

by Jacob Waite

Eurovision Sport Chooses Flowics Graphics for ISMF World Cup

Flowics, creator of the most comprehensive platform for powering remote and in-studio production of live graphics and interactive content, today announced that Eurovision Sport chose Flowics Graphics for producing the live broadcast of the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) events. Flowics Graphics and its native MSO Chrono data connector allowed Eurovision Sport to easily incorporate broadcast graphics with live results and timing information for all ISMF races.

"While EBU and its members are really committed to delivering more sustainable solutions for the broadcast of sporting events, especially within this new partnership around ski mountaineering with ISMF, Eurovision Sport is also willing to exploit innovative hybrid-cloud technologies to produce live events. In this spirit, integrating Flowics within our host-broadcasting solution has been a key milestone," said Franck Choquard, head of content and platforms at Eurovision Sport. "Not only does the Flowics cloud-based platform allow us to create state-of-the-art live graphics, but the seamless integration with the live data and timing partners, together with the Flowics support team, have helped us to deliver a complete solution within very short time frame.

"We are very much looking forward to the next steps of development around ISMF events and other properties where we can exploit the unique capabilities of the Flowics solution for both digital and broadcast."

Rather than use a traditional on-premises graphics solution, Eurovision Sport decided to rely exclusively on cloud-based graphics to simplify the overall production workflow and to reduce the cost of equipment rental or purchase. The creative services team at Flowics delivered a turnkey solution to ISMF, including the initial graphics package design into Flowics Graphics.

Through Flowics Graphics' MSO Chrono data connector — an integration between MSO Chrono and Flowics Graphics — the production team automatically received up-to-the-minute stats that it could then incorporate directly into the on-screen graphics to keep viewers informed and engaged.

"Eurovision Sport is just one of the broadcasters to start using cloud-based technologies in certain productions, not just in Europe but the world over. It's a trend that we expect will only accelerate," said Flowics CEO and Founder Gabriel Baños. "That's one reason why Flowics is growing in the European market. Following our success in North America and Latin America, we're building strategic partnerships to better serve European broadcasters."

by Jacob Waite

Viz AI Powered Graphics Debut at Daytona 500 on FOX

Vizrt, the home of software-defined visual storytelling (#SDVS) and real-time and mixed graphics, today reveals its newest innovation; graphics powered by Viz AI – premiered by FOX Sports in its production of the NASCAR season-opening Daytona 500.

“Thanks to our partners Vizrt we look forward to new ways in which we can layer information on the screen. The new Viz AI technology allows for sleeker and more elegant solutions for data delivery. We plan on exploring how we can use this technology on other sports broadcasts,” said Zac Fields, FOX Sports SVP Graphic Tech and Integration.

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series opens with 64^th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and FOX Sports has been visionary in its approach to enhancing the broadcast for viewers this year. FOX Sports’ coverage of NASCAR, which began in 2001, will feature a modern design package for the 2022 season, including the Daytona 500. Overall, the new design focuses on eye-catching colours and adds in 3D elements and informational graphics to add value for the viewer. The new design for “FOX NASCAR” brings a “video-game-like” style to the broadcast and highlights the hero moments for the athletes in a more engaging and compelling way for fans tuning in.

NASCAR is a complex sport, with driver’s juggling aerodynamic ‘tows’ or ‘drafting, high G-force friction co-efficient and defensive and offensive driving techniques to try and achieve dominance on the raceway. In such a high-adrenaline maelstrom, just keeping track of each car can be a challenge for the audience.

Vizrt's new Object Tracker, powered by Viz AI, allows the detection and tracking of objects, in this case, race cars, over any incoming video feed. The simplicity and non-intrusiveness are some of the key strengths of the new object tracker – no complex camera tracking or other data inputs are required; a video signal is all you need to apply the ground-breaking AI technology. Once an object has been selected by the user, Vizrt's powerful 3D graphics can be applied to it. This gives the viewer contextually rich insights without having to look away from the action.

“Sports productions are perfectly positioned to take advantage of AI, they are fast, agile and full of data. We are incredibly proud of the success working with FOX Sports to bring its vision to life using Viz AI for the 2022 Daytona 500 introducing dynamic, and captivating content for viewers. And this is just the beginning – this release marks the start of a series of major graphics innovations in 2022 – so stay tuned!” stated Daniel Url, Head of Global Product Management, Vizrt Group.

The Object Tracker technology, powered by Viz AI, will be commercially available from early April.

by Jacob Waite

Riedel Communications Partners Up With Sports Tech Start-Up iotis

Riedel Communications today reaffirmed its commitment to providing connected solutions for the digital transformation of the sports industry by partnering with Hanover-based IoT sports start-up iotis. iotis just introduced a smart soccer ball that generates live data through integrated sensor technology and becomes a digital coach when paired with the iotis training app. As a partner, Riedel will support iotis with special hardware development and various service offerings, including logistics.

Founded with angel investor and former national soccer player Fabian Ernst, iotis aims to digitalize ball sports sustainably and adapt them to the needs of younger generations. The company relies on sensor technology and complex algorithms as the basis for its training platform. The new smart soccer ball allows users to connect the device with a training app to view real-time data to improve performance, while enabling them to share results with friends. Tracking solutions for other sports — such as table tennis — will also be introduced.

"We are very pleased to have a strong partner like Riedel onboard. With the new strategic and financial opportunities this collaboration provides us, we can more efficiently drive our vision for smart sports balls forward," said Lennard Hachmeister, CEO and Co-Founder, iotis. "Riedel's keen sense for innovation will help us deliver trend-setting technology for the sports market, while helping us to expand into additional sectors as well."

"By expanding our strategic partnerships, we can offer our customers an even broader portfolio of customized high-end solutions," said Lutz Rathmann, CEO, Managed Technology, Riedel Communications. "In doing so, we have a clear and holistic vision of how to create sporting events and productions that are more exciting and technologically sophisticated, while at the same time less complex to stage. Tracking and sensor technologies are already an essential part of our 360-degree approach, and through our partnership with iotis, we now have another digital component for our service portfolio. It adds up to an even more attractive future for sports."

In addition to this partnership, Riedel founder and entrepreneur Thomas Riedel has also teamed up with iotis as a private investor.

"I firmly believe that digitalisation in sports is still in its infancy," said Riedel. "We've already seen a variety of technological applications in elite sports, but suitable solutions are often lacking, especially for mass sports. This is where iotis offers a strong approach. In addition to my excitement over Riedel Communications — with its years of expertise in high-end sports — becoming an iotis technology partner, I couldn't be more pleased to be personally onboard as an investor in this project."

by Jacob Waite